1001 Tips for Winging It: A GM's Guide to Improvising and Cutting Down on Prep Time

[pukunui]

Hi all,

I'm planning on converting Star Wars Saga Edition into a fantasy game at some point over the next six months or so. Because I'll be more or less on my own once it's finished and also because I've got a young family, I'd like to streamline my prep time as much as possible and get better at improvising at the game table.

What I'm hoping is that people will post their tips and tricks for "winging it" and for cutting down on prep time here using the popular "1001 ways to skin a cat" method.

Don't worry about game system. Whether you GM D&D, Star Wars, GURPS, or anything else, feel free to contribute. Let's see if we can get to 1001!


I'll start us off with something I've done in the past:

1) If you use a computer during your gaming sessions, make up an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of monster hit points. Set it up so that you can just slot in the amount of damage they take each round and it'll automatically subtract it from the total. If you're playing 4e, you can also set up the spreadsheet so that their current hit points change color when they hit their bloodied value.

 

[Janx]

One way to save on prep time is to not write/convert your own RPG. Use an off the shelf product.

Seriously, d20srd.org has everything you need to play D&D3.5 (except the character generating and advancement, but seriously, it's roll 4d6 keep the best three, repeated six times for stats, and XP to next level = 1,000 times current level).

Plus, 3.0/3.5 books are cheap now at used book stores.


But enough ribbing, here's some practical stuff:

don't fully flesh out NPCs, especially skills. It's too much work, for little pay-off. As a GM, you are not obligated to prove that you built an NPC correctly. Instead, assume that the NPC has max ranks in whatever skill is relevant. When a skill check comes up, figure out if it is VERY likely a skill the NPC would have, if yes, it's at Max ranks. This will save you time. If you want to be picky, limit the number of skills his has by his class, so as you "use them" you use up the slots.

 

[weem]

We'll call the post above #2, so...


3) I like to make sure that not everyone the PC's meet is important to them - maybe describe someone watching them, or someone waves to them as they enter town, bumps into them as they enter a bar, etc...

These 'faces' can be pulled from later on the fly - not that you want to do it often, but it gives you an opportunity for one of those "Ahhh" moments when someone who helps/hurts them later is "the same guy who watched you from the street corner months (levels) ago".

EX: In an old 2e campaign, the players saw someone who appeared to be keeping an eye on them - it was a face they saw from time to time between levels 1 and 12. When playing, they could never catch him (as they were suspicious - he would show up at different locations so he was obviously following them) - the whole time, I had no idea how I would use him later, or if I would, but I did somewhere around level 15 - they were in a lot of trouble and I wasn't sure how to go about giving them an opportunity to get out of it - then BAM, I thought of the mysterious guy and used him to help.

EX2: In my current campaign, when the PC's got to the end of a kobold stronghold and just before a big fight with the chief, they watched the chief as he spoke with a cloaked human or elf (they could not tell) who left through a small tunnel in the back as the PC's came out from hiding. That was level 1, and they are currently level 8. He has never returned, but they still keep an eye out for him - I may or may not ever pull him out of the hat for use later, but we'll see.


Anyway (whew that was a lot) these mystery people can be used at times when you may be stuck plot-wise - unsure of what to do - you can pull them out for the shock factor, etc. When "winging it" they can be the trigger for an idea when you are at a point where ideas are simply not coming to you. But again, you can't do this a bunch of times - maybe once a campaign or so, but it can be a big event

 

[Nameless1]

4) Create a few generic characters that you can reskin into whatever you want during play. Got a soldier type generic? He can become a caravan guard, an ogre whelp, an arogant noble, or any number of things.

5) Create several "drag-and-drop" encounters that are both easily scalable and context neurtal. When you need an encounter, just use an encounter template that you can then reskin into whatever context is meaningful to your current situation. Need a back alley ambush? Use the generic encounter with 5 weakling thugs and two brawlers. This has been made super easy with 4e, but with minimal prep, you can take this approach to any game. The reskin makes it anything that you want to those on the other side of the screen.

6) Use a laptop at the table. Create a spreadsheet for keeping all your encounter info. Cut and paste the templates for generic characters and generic encounters. Keep notes as you go including names, descriptions, and other useful information. As you play, you will build up a database of NPCs and locations.

7) There are many good name generators online. Use them. Take note of what you use.

8) Real world atlases can be a great source of place name inspiration. A laptop at the game table can allow you to quickly access an online atlas, and you can steal names from there, without the players even noticing. Record the names as you use them.

9) Use this site for "drag-and-drop" maps for quick encounters. If you have a printer handy you can print on demand and as needed.

10) Use this site for quick prophecies to add mystery to your campaign, all with no work on your part.

11) Use this site to come up with quick NPC personas.

 

[DarkMasterBR]

12) If you're truly winging it, ie, your players are anxiously waiting for your next words, and you have no clue what they are, you just need to know the monsters you are throwing at them.

If you know what sort of monster they are battling next, you can create everything on the spot. Example from my game:

I had a session in 10 minutes, and all I had is that my players were going to a mountain searching for a magic scroll in an abandoned city. That was it, I had nothing else.
So I looked for a monster their level and found the Shadar-kai. That was it. From there, I imagined the Shadar-kai (sp?) are also searching for the scroll, and from whom? Dwarves! Dwarves living in that abadoned city, so they would have to race the Shadar-kai to get it AND convince the dwarves to give it to them.
That was all thought up on the spot. And all I had for sure was which monster the PCs were battling next.

 

[Morrus]

13) Steal your NPCs from novels, movies and TV. By using a character you're already familiar with, it's easy to portray them and know how they'd react, and you end up with a greater variety of characters than the stock 3-4 impressions you can normally do.

Naturally, you don't tell the players you're doing this. So the lawman might be based on Clint Eastwood, or your maniacal bad guy on The Joker.

 

[pukunui]

Great stuff guys! Thanks very much. Keep up the good work!

4) Create a few generic characters that you can reskin into whatever you want during play. Got a soldier type generic? He can become a caravan guard, an ogre whelp, an arogant noble, or any number of things.

5) Create several "drag-and-drop" encounters that are both easily scalable and context neurtal. When you need an encounter, just use an encounter template that you can then reskin into whatever context is meaningful to your current situation. Need a back alley ambush? Use the generic encounter with 5 weakling thugs and two brawlers. This has been made super easy with 4e, but with minimal prep, you can take this approach to any game. The reskin makes it anything that you want to those on the other side of the screen.

I was wondering if you could perhaps go into a little more detail on how exactly you make generic and/or scaleable NPCs and encounters. What is it that makes them generic, for instance?

I mean, if you take Saga's Threats of the Galaxy book, some of the NPCs in there are generic in that they haven't got a specific race, so you still end up having to do quite a bit of work to make them no longer generic. I guess you could argue that they're more of a template than an actual statblock, though.

Do you mean make up some statblocks that are mechanically complete but have no real fluff so they can be used for multiple purposes?

 

[Woas]

14) Utilize the Adventure Funnel to cut prep time down a lot and focus your ideas.

 

[beldar1215]

14) Utilize the Adventuer Funnel to cut prep time down a lot and focus your ideas.

Thank you so much for this link. I've always run pre-made modules, but want to give writing my own adventures a shot. This will be very helpful.

Also, thanks for the thread. Winging it is one of the things I worry most about. I'm not very good at it.

Beldar

 

[Nameless1]

I was wondering if you could perhaps go into a little more detail on how exactly you make generic and/or scaleable NPCs and encounters. What is it that makes them generic, for instance?

*SNIP*

Do you mean make up some statblocks that are mechanically complete but have no real fluff so they can be used for multiple purposes?

Statblocks, no fluff. I love the reskin. Since you typically have to do a lot of improv for descriptions at the table anyway, what I do is stat out several level appropriate encounters, and give them no fluff at all. I usually have a generic rabble, a set of soldiers, a generic "spellcaster", and a near carbon copy of the PCs, along with any encounters that the PCs skipped for some reason. When I need an encounter, I look at what I have already statted up, and describe them however I need them. The numbers are all good, and the PCs only interact with what I tell them, so the fact that they are facing "generic 7th level soldier group" doesn't matter when they think that they are facin the enforcers of the mob, and then three enchounters later I use the same encounter as the town watch, and two encounters later I use them as an elite hobgoblin mercenary unit. I prepared one encounter and got to use it three times. I can add a unique ability of flavor enhancing power to each on the fly, and they are all different encounters as far as the players are concerned. If the encounter terrain is different, then they are actually right. Want club weilders? Call them clubs. Want spear weilders? Call them spears. Use the same stats. The damage for a spear or a club is made up anyway, so who cares if the club only does say 1d6 and the spear does say 1d8. I want the enemies to do 1d8, so the club happens to do 1d8. As long as the action is hot, the players don't really care.

The same goes for encounter settings. Generic forest, generic dark alley, generic tavern. Decide on the elements that I want to include, have a very rough but flexible map, and improvise and modify on the fly. If your campaign is exclusively urban, plan a market, a sewer, a tavern, an alley, a guardhouse, a noble's palace. Recycle each as often as you want. If you find that you need something else, plan it, and add it to your generic encounter setting file. Use it again. Recycleable elements are the name of the game for the lazy DM.

Clear enough?